Due to things that come up in life 4/24 didn't go as planned. I could not get out hunting during the morning you all know how that feels when you have active tags in your pocket and the morning dawns with beautiful hunting weather. Come noon I was free so I decided to head over to unit 3 in an area I picked by hanging the map on a dart board and where the dart hit I went. Hunting a different area cold is something I do at least once each spring. So it was I found myself standing at the end of a county forest spur at 2:00 pm. A beautiful walk in woods produced this at 6:30 pm.

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I'd love to report a long battle of heavy back and forth calling and maneuvering but that would be an exaggeration. I was simply enjoying the evening stroll along an easy trail thinking I should find a more productive area when I thought I heard a course half yelp. So I picked a tree, setup, made 2 yelps on slate, heard a half gobble much like a jake and son of gun there he was standing at 20 yards.

After 2 days of physically tough unit 1 river hunting. Made hard by sudden extremely high water levels that flooded all my traditional areas breaking what was left into small land patches. It seemed I was always on the wrong side of whatever, meaning I had to row or pole a lot. Water is too deep for wading. Saturday morning was no exception.This one I worked a little harder physically however he too came running to just a couple of my yelps making the actual 10:30 morning setup very short.

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Hope the turkeys keep responding good for everyone this next week too. Good hunting everyone.

Last edited by charlie elk on April 28th, 2013, 4:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.

later, charlie If you agree with me call it fact; if you disagree - call it my opinion. After all - we are talking turkey.

congrats charlie very nice birds!!! man whats up charlie? did you need a new set of paint brushes??? both them turkeys beards are monster thick & long true paint brush beards not winter stress on them beards a??? what were the spurs like??? 2 yr olds or 3+?

i got a bird on 4/24 also but in MN he had plenty of fat on the breast & a nice thick 9 inch beard i was happy with him

I'll accept the honor of being known as "turkey boogey man charlie" That's cool gopher.

Oh man, that probably just jinxed my next season. The NOA weather forecast has snow in it for Wed and Thurs; a joke right? I mean come on Wed is May Day!

turkey junky wrote: man whats up charlie? did you need a new set of paint brushes??? both them turkeys beards are monster thick & long true paint brush beards not winter stress on them beards a??? what were the spurs like??? 2 yr olds or 3+?

mrs elk needs paint brushes so I thought I would accommodate...Not really, it was the luck of the draw. Apparently they were the ones who didn't listen to mother hen's stories. Only one had a 1/2" spur, on the other 3 legs they did not even have bumps The turkey over the rock had a 13" beard weighed in at 16.2 lbs. the other 11.5" beard weighed 21 lbs., both sported full fans. The primary wing feathers showed no wear. How do you age them?

later, charlie If you agree with me call it fact; if you disagree - call it my opinion. After all - we are talking turkey.

? got me on that 1 charlie? maybe they are like some really early hatched birds from last yr??? or super super jakes??? or 1. 1/2 - just under 2 yr olds???

my buddy in oklahoma just sent me some pics of some birds they shot in OK on sunday they have like 11-13 inch beards on 2 birds & 1 bird has a jake like 4 inch beard well the jake like bearded bird & the bird with the 11 inch beard both have full fans like a tom & the bird with the 13 inch beard has a jake fan??? they 2 all had like half inch spurs & under like jakes would have???

maybe the past few early warm spring had mother turkeys pop n babys way early???

like you said they did not listen to moma when she said avoid charlie elk at all coasts you never know wear he will be zone 1 or zone 3!!!???